Recently released on DVD is a new edition of the cult-classic, The Warriors. This 1979 film from Walter Hill (48 Hours, Red Heat) is based on a novel by Sol Yurick about a street gang called "The Warriors" who are framed with murdering Cyrus, a big-time gang leader who tried to unite all the cities gangs into a unified front. Now they have everyone out to get them, and the Warriors need to get from the Bronx to their home turf in Coney Island. At its core, it's a very simple, straight forward story that takes place over one evening, and the level of hyper-reality presented in the original film is taken to a new level in this new "Ultimate Director's Cut".

There are really only minor differences, but they are significant. Firstly, we have a new introduction to the movie, tying the plot to a Greek legend (Xenophon’s The March of the 10,000) which the book was inspired by. We subsequently get comic-book transitions bridging many sequences, which - while feeling a bit odd for someone who has seen the original film - actually helps establish the film in a world that is not our own. (In the documentary included on the DVD, Hill actually explains that he was forced into a comic-book approach by Paramount, because they didn't want him to fill the film with black and Hispanic actors, but he wasn't able to fully realize his vision until now.)

Along for the ride is a very cool soundtrack, with music by "S.W.A.T" composer Barry De Vorzon. The synthesizer-based score will certainly date the film, but it works in a very effective way. This DVD does not include the original mono track from the previous release, but the new 5.1 sound mix allows the music to really burst through. When it comes to the video quality, the 16x9 enhanced widescreen image is certainly cleaner and less gritty than the original DVD release, and looks good for a 1979 film.

It's unfortunate that the original theatrical version of the film wasn't included on here - through seamless branching, it would have been a welcome addition, and wouldn't have taken up much more room. When you take into consideration that the older DVD release (with the original cut, and original audio track) is out-of-print, it becomes all the more frustrating.

The extras on this single-sided DVD seem minimal, but are actually quite substantive. A new introduction to the film by Walter Hill allows him to explain his reasons for the changes to the film, and he also explains that he doesn't like to do commentaries (which is why there is none to be found on the disc). Four featurettes - running a little over an hour in total - take us through the process of making The Warriors, from development and pre-production, all the way through to the release of the film, and the societal impact it has had. New interviews with cast and crew members help flesh out a lot of the interesting stories behind the fights, the filming process, and more. While some of the deleted scenes are shown as excerpts within the documentary, there is no "Deleted Scenes" section, which is unfortunate.

Barry De Vorzon talks about his approach to the film, and how he wanted to use the synthesizers to give it a different type of texture, and make it eerie. Interestingly, he didn't score the Baseball Furies fight scene, but it was deemed too brutally realistic, so they tracked in music from elsewhere in the film in the end. Another interesting tidbit revealed is that Orson Welles was brought in to do the original narration for the opening sequence of the film, but it was never used theatrically. (The DVD version now uses narration, but it's not Welles.)

If you've never seen The Warriors, it's definitely worth checking out. It's a tense fun ride, and even fans of the film would find this DVD worthy of picking up. Die-hard purists will undoubtedly take exception to the lack of the original version being included, but the new transfer and extras make this a worthy addition to anyone's film library.